Classroom-centered, Multidisciplinary, and Collaborative Oral History

Author: jxmiller

My 100 level RCC course included a community engagement element. Students worked with older adults who are residents of the Mayflower Retirement Community. To help them begin to develop relationships, I asked the students to conduct a focused oral history with their resident partner.

·What things that went well and was the grant helpful to your class?

The whole experience was helpful. I would point tot he permission process in particular as an opportunity to get students thinking about the various aspects of rights and permissions in a digital context.

Rachel’s presentation to the students was excellent, the Story Corps app was easy to use (although not easy to share content from.)

·Any “ah ha” moments for you or your class or yourself?

One section of the course concerns preservation and memory. Seeing the “melt” between actual interview, recording, upload to the StoryCorps app, and finally upload to the True Stories blog was an object lesson in the ephemeral nature of much digital content.